Joe (left), son of Michael,
the director of Nehemiah House, is pictured with Genevieve, a resident at
Nehemiah House.
A view from me to you: Part I
By Monique Judkins
Many people express a desire
to know how our missions’ trip to the
So after some thought, I
decided the best way to tell the story of our mission trip would be to approach
it from my journal. So here goes. I hope through this you can experience our
journey through my eyes. This is part one of a series.
Tuesday, April 20. Location:
somewhere over the pacific. After a year of fundraising and preparation our team
of five is finally on our way. I am not sure totally what to expect as I have
never been to the
First of all, I know we will
have a series of flights that will be torturous at best. We will travel for
almost 24 hours and it will take us two days. (We lose a day as we travel across
the time zones). I know the heat in the
Thursday, April 22. Time:
We now call Cebu Pacific
Airlines “Extortion Air.” They are the airline that we used to get us just the
few hours over to the
Later we found out that the
airlines may have duped us, few locals we told that story to had heard of this
policy, some think because we were Americans the airlines took advantage of us.
I guess we will never know, for sure we will do things differently next time we
come here. Luckily we each brought extra money in just such an event happened.
Some of our sponsors had given us money for this. I thank God we had the money
available.
Due to the fact that we had
to bring lots of supplies; all my dental instruments and all the crafts plus
extra clothing for the girls as well as our own, we each had two suitcases and
two of us had three suitcases for a total of 13 bags, not counting our carrying
bags.
Despite the fact that I don’t
see anyone here at the airport to greet us, I don’t panic. As with the airport
in
Once outside, I call out to
the crowd in my loudest voice, “Michael!” Sure enough he is there in the crowd,
raises his hand and we connect. Bennie is with him, another missionary.
Nehemiah House is run by an
organization called Youth with a
On the drive to Nehemiah
House, Michael tells us more about Nehemiah House. Michael is the director and
overseer. Michael and his wife Tating have lived there 15 years. They have two
boys age seven and 13. They don’t live at the house; they have a place just down
the road.
Nehemiah House is staffed
with five women who do live there and stay there 100 percent of the time. The
house is not really an orphanage, all the girls there share a sad commonality;
they are all victims of sexual abuse. Some of them are rape victims, usually
violent in nature, they were raped at gun or knifepoint and they know not their
abusers.
One of the girls there is just 17 years
old and has a two year old son as a result of incest from her grandfather. Once
the crime has been reported, the girls are taken out of the house and placed in
Nehemiah House for one to two years while the girls are getting counsel and the
case is being prosecuted. Because many of the girls are in danger of retribution
from family members of the accused, sometimes their own family members, they are
in protective custody.
Often they are moved out of
the city where they live and their whereabouts are unknown to their families for
their protection. Some are under police protection. The house can take a total
of 30 girls but currently there are just 19 there.
Nehemiah House is not far
from the airport so after a 40 minute drive we arrive. As I suspect, the
dwellings in this city resemble those that I have seen in
The poor are the majority
here. The river is muddy yet the people who live along here use it for bathing
and washing laundry. In some areas as in
The metal gate entrance to
the house has graffiti all over it. Michael tells us that it is useless to try
to clean it up or paint over it. The gangs here would just re-create their mess
again. Once the gate is open, all the girls come running to greet us. The
youngest of the group is Genevieve. She is just seven years old. She is so sweet
and loving in nature.
About half of them are very
shy and introverted (rightly so). The others are very outgoing and forthright,
coming up to us and hugging us, asking questions and eager for our shared time
together to begin.
We look and feel totally
spent but our wonderful greeting brings us refreshment. Even though it is still
early morning here in the
Team Missions’ members are
pictured eating breakfast on the morning of their arrival. The meal consisted of
hot dogs, rice, eggs, and mangos. Clockwise from left are Luke Manifold, Kathy
Gadowa, Don Judkins and Gwen Tuning.
Gwen Tuning oversees a
painting project at Nehemiah House.
Rosalie and Mai Mai, two
Nehemiah House residents, wash their laundry.
Floramae and Mejoy enjoy
blowing bubbles outside Nehemiah House.